in 


BS^el5 


7  2o,  2  0 


3fntm  tl|?  Sltbrarg  of 

l^quFatlirb  bg  Ijtm  to 

tl|0  ffitbrarij  of 

Pnitrrton  Stt^olngiral  S^rmtnarQ 


AT      THE 
WELL-SIDE 

BY 

Meade  C.Williams,  D.D. 

ASSOCIATE    Editor    HERALD    AND    PRESBYTER 


THE  WINONA  PUBLISHING  CO. 
CHICAGO,  ILL.        WINONA  LAKE.  IND. 


COPYRIGHT,   1903 

BY 

THE   WINONA    PUBLISHING  CO. 


AT  THE  WELL-SIDE 


AT  THE  WELL-SIDE. 
A  Study  in  John  iv:  1-42. 


T  ESUS  is  journeying  from  Judea  north- 
J  ward  to  Galilee.  He  must  needs  pass 
through  Samaria  on  the  way.  He  is 
journeying  afoot.  Behold,  the  Son  of  Man ! 
Though  rich,,  yet  for  our  sakes  He  became 
poor.  He  humbled  Himself  to  become  a 
dust-soiled  traveller  on  the  highways  of  our 
earth.  Is  it  not  remarkable  that  in  our 
Lord's  much  journeying  during  His  three 
years  of  laborious  ministry  we  never  once 
read  of  His  travelling  by  chariot  nor  by 
any  other  wheeled  vehicle,  neither  by  horse- 
back nor  by  camel !  True,  we  once  read  of 
His  entering  Jerusalem  riding  on  a  colt, 
the  foal  of  an  ass.  But  you  will  recall  that 
that  was  but  a  momentary  act  and  was  not 
for  convenience  sake,  nor  in  the  way  of 
journeying. 

Take,  too,  the  striking  picture  we  here 
have  of  the  reality  of  Christ's  human 
nature.     Walking  for  hours  under  a  hot 


Ht  Zbc  WiclU^i^c 


oriental  sun,  he  grew  weary.  And  about  the 
noon  hour,"^  coming  to  a  wayside  well,  as 
we  read,  ''being  wearied  with  His  journey 
He  sat  thus  on  the  well."  And  besides  fa- 
tigue, He  thirsted.    And  so — 

*'  Just  such  as  I  this  earth  He  trod 
With  every  human  ill  but  sin, 
And  tho'  indeed  the  very  God, 
As  I  am  now,  so  He  has  been." 

He  is  sitting  alone  beside  the  well,  the 
disciples  having  gone  into  the  city  to  buy 
food.  While  He  is  quietly  waiting,  there 
comes  a  certain  Samaritan  woman,  with  her 
pitcher  and  the  long  cord  attached,  to  draw 
water  from  the  well.  Jesus  said  to  her, 
"Give  me  to  drink."  Is  there  any  other 
instance  in  the  records  of  our  Saviour's 
ministry  of  his  making  request  for  temporal 
favor  for  himself  ?t 

The  Lord  now  in  His  glory  thirsts  no 
more,  but  are  we  not  still  hearing,  as  if 
from  His  own  lips,  the  same  gentle  appeal? 

♦I  prefer  to  understand  "the  sixth  hour"  according-  to 
the  Jewish  computation  rather  than  according  to  the 
Roman,  which'would  make  it  six  o'clock  in  the  evening. 

tHis  cry  on  the  cross,  "I  thirst,"  I  separate  from  his 
active  ministry. 


Ht  XTbe  1IClelUSi^e 


For  so  does  He  identify  Himself  with  His 
needy  ones  on  earth  that  in  the  piteous  cries 
that  come  for  our  aid  we  can  catch  His 
voice,  "Give  me  to  drink'^ ;  and  even  the  cup 
of  cold  water  given  in  His  name  shall  not 
lose  its  reward,  for  ''inasmuch  as  ye  have 
done  it  unto  one  of  the  least  of  these  my 
brethren  ye  have  done  it  unto  me."  And 
especially  in  every  appeal  to  our  benevolence 
and  our  cooperation  in  the  work  of  His  gos- 
pel, struggling  under  the  noon-day  heat  of 
difficulty  and  opposition,  should  we  hear  the 
Lord  himself  saying,  "Give  me  to  drink." 
Do  not  think  when  such  objects  are  brought 
before  you  that  you  are  giving  merely  to  the 
machinery  of  Mission  Boards  and  Societies, 
or  to  the  schemes  of  merely  human  interest. 
Your  giving  terminates  on  a  higher  object. 
It  is  the  great  Captain  of  our  salvation  call- 
ing to  you,  ''Give  me  to  drink !" 

To  ask  a  drink  of  water  was  a  simple  re- 
quest, and  one  which,  in  that  warm  climate 
especially,  was  seldom  refused.  Under  or- 
dinary circumstances  no  doubt  the  woman 
would  have  instantly  complied,  without  any 
disposition  to  question  or  cavil.  But  observ- 
ing, probably  from  His  garb  and  dialect, 


Ht  Ube  mclUSi^c 


that  the  stranger  before  her  was  a  Jew,  and 
knowing  of  the  strained  relations  between 
Jews  and  Samaritans,  she  assumes  an  air 
of  surprise  that  He  should  ask  of  her  even 
so  trifling  a  courtesy  as  a  drink  of  water. 
For  the  Jews,  says  the  Evangelist  in  a  note 
of  parenthesis,  ''have  no  dealings  with  the 
Samaritans."  This  was  a  sad  race  fact.  The 
history  of  the  alienation  was  this :  After  the 
ten  tribes,  constituting  the  Northern  King- 
dom, had  been  carried  into  captivity,  some 
seven  hundred  years  before,  the  land  ( which 
took  the  name  Samaria  from  the  city  which 
had  previously  been  the  capital  of  the  king- 
dom) was  repeopled  by  a  motley  popu- 
lation made  up  of  heathen  colonies  from 
different  countries,  a  sprinkling  of  fugitive 
Jews  from  the  land  of  Judah,  together  with 
fragments,  here  and  there,  of  the  former  ten 
tribes  of  Israel.  Subsequently,  when  the 
Jews  were  returning  from  their  captivity  in 
Babylon  (more  than  two  hundred  years 
after  the  overthrow  of  the  Northern  tribes), 
and  began  to  rebuild  at  Jerusalem,  the 
Samaritans  proposed  cooperation  and  union 
with  them.  But  the  proposition  was  refused, 
and  no  alliance  with  the  tainted,  mongrel 


Bt  XTbe   mclUSi^>c 


race  would  be  allowed.  This  aroused  deep 
resentment  on  the  part  of  the  Samaritans, 
which  grew  and  was  intensified  in  the  course 
of  centuries.  In  opposition  to  the  Jews,  they 
set  up  a  religious  system  of  their  own, — 
partly  heathen  and  partly  that  of  Israel. 
They  took  the  five  books  of  Moses,  and  held 
to  the  expectation  of  a  Messiah  to  come,  but 
rejected  the  rest  of  the  Scriptures;  they 
acknowledged  God,  but  also  observed  cer- 
tain idolatrous  practices.  As  the  writer  in 
Second  Kings  described  it,  ''They  feared  the 
Lord  and  served  their  own  gods."  Within 
their  bounds  stood  the  historic  Mount  Geri- 
zim.  For  this  mountain  they  claimed  a 
sanctity  greater  than  that  which  attached  to 
Mount  Zion.  On  it  they  built  a  temple,  and 
instituted  ceremonies  of  worship  to  rival 
those  of  Jerusalem. 

This  bitter  animosity  of  the  Samaritans 
was  met  by  the  feeling,  equally  strong,  of 
hatred,  scorn  and  contempt  on  the  part  of 
the  Jews.  It  was  said  a  Jew  would  not  eat 
out  of  the  same  dish  with  a  Samaritan,  nor 
drink  from  the  same  cup.  They  made  the 
very  name  a  term  of  reproach.  So  that  the 
Jews,  on  one  occasion,  wishing    to    revile 


m  ubc  -mciusi^c 


Jesus,  and  to  concentrate  in  one  word  their 
feeling  of  scorn,  flung  at  Him  as  the  most 
opprobrious  epithet  in  their  vocabulary, 
''Thou  art  a  Samaritan!"  Hence,  perhaps, 
it  is  not  so  strange  that  this  woman,  with  the 
sense  of  the  old  race  prejudice,  and  knowing 
nothing  of  the  man  before  her  save  His  na- 
tionality, should  follow  the  course  she  did, 
and  instead  of  instantly  granting  the  re- 
quest, should  begin  to  parley  and  to  raise 
questions  in  "a  sort  of  playful  triumph,"  as 
Alford  understands  it — "What,  you !  a  mem- 
ber of  the  proud  and  scornful  Jewish  race 
who  look  down  on  us,  do  you  ask  drink  of 
me,  a  woman  of  Samaria !" 

Jesus,  Jew  though  He  was,  was  of  course 
above  this  low  and  wicked  prejudice  of  His 
nation.  He  never  spoke  disparagingly  of 
the  Samaritans,  and  exhibitions  of  rancor 
towards  them  on  the  part  of  His  disciples 
He  rebuked — "Ye  know  not  what  manner 
of  spirit  ye  are  of."  He  had  already  sent 
His  disciples  out  into  the  neighborhood  to 
buy  Samaritan  food.  At  another  time  He 
directed  them  to  go  to  a  certain  village  of 
the  Samaritans  "to  make  ready  for  His 
coming,"  although,  as  it  proved,  the  people 

6 


Ht   Zbc   TKIlelUSlbe 


inhospitably  refused  to  receive  Him.  In 
the  case  of  the  ten  lepers  who  were  healed, 
He  commended  the  one  who  "returned  to 
give  glory  to  God,"  and  of  whom  it  is  said, 
"he  was  a  Samaritan."  And  in  His  story  of 
the  poor  traveller  stripped  and  robbed  and 
left  half  dead  on  the  way,  we  have  the 
Lord's  beautiful  tribute  to  "a  certain  Sa- 
maritan" who  kindly  cared  for  the  sufferer 
when  the  Jewish  priest  and  the  Jewish  Le- 
vite  had  passed  by  on  the  other  side  without 
raising  a  finger  in  help.  And  for  all  time 
will  that  tender  injunction,  which  bids  us 
"go  and  do  likewise,"  be  associated  with  the 
merciful  deed,  and  will  perpetuate  the  ex- 
ample, of  that  man  of  a  despised  race. 


Ht  Zbc  XRIlelUSl&e 


11. 


The  woman's  reply,  ungracious  though 
it  was,  gives  opportunity  for  that  which 
Jesus  always  relished  more  than  His  neces- 
sary food.  As  at  another  time  He  had 
greater  interest  in  teaching  Mary,  as  she  sat 
at  His  feet,  than  He  could  feel  in  Martha's 
labored  preparation  for  His  entertainment 
at  her  table,  so  now  He  forgets  He  is  thirsty, 
and  He  forgets  He  is  tired,  in  the  oppor- 
tunity which  offers  of  imparting  spiritual 
drink  to  a  perishing  soul.  His  own  sense  of 
bodily  need  is  lost  in  the  thought  of  her 
spiritual  need,  and  instead  of  renewing  His 
request  for  water.  He  illustrates  that  His 
meat  and  His  drink  was  ratlrer  to  do  the  will 
of  Him  that  sent  him.    For, 

"  Sweeter,  O  Lord,  than  rest  to  Thee 
When  seated  by  the  well, 
Was  the  blest  work  which  brought  Thee  there 
Of  grace  and  peace  to  tell." 

By  means  of  the  well  and  the  water,  as 
figures,  He  would  lift  the  woman's  thoughts 
to  something  higher  than  bodily  cravings. 

8 


Ht  Zbc  MelUSt^e 


The  subject  between  them  was  a  matter  of 
giving.  And  He,  asking  a  favor  at  her 
hands,  has  at  that  very  moment  the  power, 
yea,  the  disposition,  to  bestow  a  greater  gift 
than  He  asks.  And  in  that  compassion  and 
patience  which  He  ever  had  towards  "the 
ignorant  and  them  that  are  out  of  the  way," 
He  now  addresses  her,  in  effect: — "Oh, 
woman,  if  you  only  knew  the  gift  of  God, 
and  if  you  only  knew  who  it  is  that  has  said 
to  you  'give  me  to  drink,'  the  relations  be- 
tween us  would  be  quite  changed.  You 
would  have  been  asking  of  him,  and  he  with- 
out any  parley,  and  without  any  delay, 
would  have  given  unto  you  living  water."* 

•By  some  the  gift  of  God  is  understood  to  mean  the 
Holy  Spirit,  and  to  correspond  to  the  "  living- water"  of 
the  next  clause — water  being  a  frequent  Bible  symbol  of 
the  Holy  Spirit's  influence.  By  others  the  gift  of  God  is 
understood  as  referring-  to  Christ  himself— God's  gracious 
gift  to  the  world,  and  likened  to  the  water  described  as 
"  living"  in  the  sense  of  being  real,  or  true,  and  perennial 
in  its  influence.  I  see  no  reason  for  any  exclusive  interpre- 
tation. Both  are  comprehended  in  the  one  general  thought 
that  God  freely  forgives  sin  and  satisfies  the  desire  of 
every  needy  soul  that  seeks.  The  gift  and  the  Giver  were 
at  hand;  "the  kingdom  of  God  was  come  nigh  "  unto  the 
woman.  And  as  the  Saviour  in  his  omniscience  read  her 
sinful  life  in  advance  of  the  interview,  may  we  not  also 
understand  it  was  in  exercise  of  his  divine  foreknowledge 
that,  putting  emphasis  on  the  "/Aow,"  he  could  declare 
beforehand  that  when  she  should  know  this  truth  she 
would  be  ready  to  ask. 

9 


Ht   Zbc  WiclUSi^c 


The  woman's  spiritual  sense  is  very  dull, 
and  she  does  not  comprehend  Christ's  refer- 
ence to  the  living  water,  even  as  afterwards 
to  the  Jews  His  allusion  to  the  living  bread 
seemed  like  words  in  an  unknown  tongue. 
She  knows  of  no  other  water  than  that 
which  slakes  bodily  thirst.  *'You  cannot 
give  me  water  from  this  well,"  she  says,  "for 
it  is  very  deep  and  you  have  nothing  to  draw 
with.  From  whence  then  hast  thou  that 
living  water?  Or,  are  you  boasting  of 
some  other  spring  or  fountain  with  better 
water  than  this  ? ' '  Emphasizing  whatever 
remote  or  slight  connection  her  nation  had 
with  the  ancient  covenanted  Israel,  she  re- 
sents His  words,  as  if  a  depreciation  of  the 
well  so  long  hallowed  among  her  people. 
"Why,  our  father  Jacob  gave  us  this  well, 
and  he  used  to  drink  from  it  himself,  and 
his  children  also  and  his  cattle.  Art  thou 
greater  than  our  father  Jacob,"  she  asks  in 
a  half- resentful  tone,  and  as  with  an  injured 
air,  "that  you  presume  to  speak  of  a  better 
water  ?"  Jesus  in  return  makes  no  question 
of  the  excellent  quality  of  this  water.  Had 
He  not,  indeed,  already  asked  to  drink  of  it 
at  her  hands?    But  without  any  disparage- 

10 


Bt  Zbc  MelUSl^e 


ment,  and  allowing  all  that  is  claimed  for 
Jacob's  well,  it  must  yet  be  acknowledged, 
He  gently  declares,  even  by  those  who  had 
enjoyed  its  friendly  service  their  whole  life 
long,  that  drinking  of  its  water  you  will 
thirst  again.  You  fill  your  pitcher  to-day, 
but  to-morrow  you  must  journey  hither 
again  for  a  new  supply.  And  so  it  is  con- 
tinually. Whereas,  *'he  who  drinks  of  the 
water  that  I  give  shall  never  thirst,  for  the 
water  that  I  shall  give  him  will  be  in  him 
a  well  of  water  springing  up  into  everlasting 
life." 

The  woman  is  puzzled  but  is  evidently  be- 
coming interested.  There  is  that  in  the 
novel  and  singular  announcement  the 
stranger  makes  that  awakens  mental  interest, 
even  though  she  does  not  fully  catch  His 
meaning.  And  with  a  vague  conception  of 
it,  as  something  exalted,  and  in  a  half- 
serious  and  half-bantering  w^ay,  she  says, 
"Oh,  if  that  is  so,  then  give  me  of  that  won- 
derful water!"  This  was  spoken  in  that 
same  misapprehending  spirit  and  indifferent 
tone  with  which  the  Jews  once  responded 
when  Jesus  was  discoursing  about  the  bread 
which  Cometh  down  from  heaven,  'Xord, 

II 


Ht  Zbc   WiclUSi^c 


evermore  give  us  this  bread."  The  woman 
thought  of  her  years  of  toil  over  the  water 
supply:  coming  from  her  home  with  the 
large  earthen  pitcher;  letting  it  down  into 
the  well  and  laboriously  drawing  it  up; 
raising  the  heavy  load  to  her  shoulder,  or  to 
her  head,  and  slowly  trudging  home,  and 
then  the  supply  so  soon  exhausted,  and 
again  the  weary  trip !  ' '  Oh ,  yes , ' '  says  she — 
still  thinking  of  the  water  of  earth,  "give 
me  this  water,  that  I  thirst  not,  neither 
come  hither  to  draw."* 

Not  knowing  clearly  what  she  had  done, 
yet  in  some  sense  the  woman  has  asked  for 
the  living  water.  And  Jesus  would  now 
give  her  to  drink.  But  the  Lord  knew  the 
woman's  sinful  life,  and  her  dormant  con- 
science. And  He  who  was  quick  to  heal 
must  first  make  sore.  There  must  be  a  pre- 
paratory work,  an  awakening  touch,  and  the 
woman  must  herself  see  her  sin  and  realize 
her  need,  and  feel  a  thirst  after  righteous- 
ness. Had  He  not  told  her  that  the  living 
water  meant  another  well,  a  well  within, 
springing  up  into  everlasting  life?  Thus, 
first,  a  well  must  be  dug,  as  it  were,  in  her 

♦"Neither  come  aU  the  way  hither  to  draw,"  R.  V.;  her 
village  supposed  to  be  nearly  a  mile  away. 
12 


Ht  Zbc   WiclUSi^c 


heart;  a  hidden  spring  down  in  the  depths 
must  be  reached.  The  shaft  of  truth  must 
be  sunk  through  the  surface,  must  pierce 
through  the  layers  of  transgression,  through 
the  thick  incrustings  of  sinful  years,  through 
the  deposits  of  carnality,  through  the  hard 
and  stony  strata.  **Go,  call  thy  husband  and 
come  hither."  This  was  the  first  stroke  of 
the  pick  in  digging  the  new  well. 

The  word,  husband,  must  have  had  an 
ominous  sound  for  the  woman.  It  did  not 
go  well  in  connection  with  her  life.  We 
imagine  her  confused  and  embarrassed  for 
a  moment,  and  her  eyes  perhaps  turned  to 
the  ground.  But  we  imagine  her  soon  rally- 
ing and  raising  her  head.  This  Jewish 
stranger,  having  no  dealings  with  Samari- 
tans and  never  before  in  our  village — what 
does  he  know  about  my  life?  My  secret  is 
safe.  And  so  she  nonchalantly  answers,  "I 
have  no  husband."  But  the  first  stroke 
bounding  off,  another  is  ready.  Jesus  takes 
her  up  right  there  and  unveils  her  sinful 
life, — "Thou  hast  well  said,  I  have  no  hus- 
band, for  thou  hast  had  five  husbands  and  he 
whom  thou  now  hast  is  not  thy  husband; 
in  that  saidst  thou  truly."     This  was  the 

13 


Ht  xrbe  •QClelUStbe 


second  piercing,  deep  and  far  reaching.  It 
came  without  warning  and  it  went  home  to 
the  woman.  Her  sin  has  found  her  out; 
and  all  things  are  naked  and  open  unto  the 
eyes  of  Him  with  whom  she  now  has  to  do. 
Her  own  heart  condemns  her.  And  what  a 
flood  of  recollections  was  this  convicting 
charge  fitted  to  awaken! — the  early  days 
when  she  was  a  pure  girl,  then  the  honor- 
able love  of  maidenhood  and  the  heart's 
plighted  troth,  then  the  mournful  days 
when,  either  by  death  five  times  made  a 
widow  or,  as  is  more  probable,  in  some  of 
these  cases  at  least,  the  sacred  bonds  of  mar- 
riage broken  by  her  sin,  and  now  her  present 
life  of  shame !  Oh,  how  ''sharper  than  any 
two  edged  sword  was  this  word  of  the  Lord 
piercing  even  to  the  dividing  asunder  of 
soul  and  spirit  and  of  the  joints  and  mar- 
row." Reading  between  the  lines  I  see  here 
an  awakened  sense  of  sin,  the  beginnings 
of  penitential  sorrow  and  a  thought  of  God 
which  troubled  her  soul.  For,  observe  the 
marked  change  at  once  in  her  whole  attitude 
towards  the  mysterious  stranger  who  thus 
deals  with  her,  who  searches  her  and  knows 
her,  who  understands  her  thought  afar  off, 

^4 


Bt  Ube  mclUSi^c 


and  who  is  acquainted  with  all  her  ways. 
Such  knowledge  is  too  wonderful  for  her, 
and  her  spirit  bows  before  Him.  She  had 
first  thought  of  Him,  indifferently,  as  an 
ordinary  man,  a  common  wayfarer  passing 
by  on  his  wearisome  journeying,  and  one 
who  commended  himself  the  less  because 
he  was  a  Jew.  But  how  altered  now  her 
whole  bearing  towards  him  !  How  different 
the  spirit  she  exhibits!  Her  bold  and  pre- 
sumptuous manner  is  gone,  and  in  its  place 
we  see  respect  and  deference.  A  little  be- 
fore she  had  said  with  a  supercillious  and 
almost  insolent  air,  "Art  thou  greater  than 
our  father  Jacob?"  and  now  she  acknowl- 
edges in  effect.  Yes,  here  is  one  indeed  who 
is  greater  than  the  patriarch  Jacob ;  one  who 
enters  her  inner  life  and  who  reads  the  pages 
of  her  shameful  history,  and  before  whom 
she  cannot  dissemble,  nor  cloak  her  sin.  A 
new  light  in  regard  to  him  breaks  on  her 
mind.  She  is  conscious  that  she  had  been 
wofully  misjudging  him;  that,  unaware  of 
the  fact,  she  had  been  conversing  with  some 
exalted  personage,  and  had  spoken  "unad- 
visedly with  her  lips."  And  though  know- 
ing not  who  the  stranger  may  be,  she  yet 

15 


Ht  Zbc  TPdlelUStbe 


most  deferentially  acknowledges  this  much 
at  least,  "Sir,  I  perceive  that  thou  art  a 
prophet !" 

A  prophet,  in  the  Bible  sense,  was  a 
teacher — ^but  much  more  than  a  mere 
teacher.  He  was  a  teacher  so  marked  by 
striking  signs  as  to  show  that  in  a  special 
sense  he  was  accredited  by  God  and  spoke 
for  Him.  And  just  as  Nicodemus  said  to 
Christ,  "No  man  can  do  these  miracles  that 
thou  doest  except  God  be  with  him,"  so  this 
woman  reasoned — no  man,  an  entire 
stranger  here,  can  so  read  my  life,  and 
pierce  to  its  depths,  and  show  me  my  sin, 
except  God  be  with  him ! 

This  being  her  sense  of  sin  and  the 
awakening  within  her  of  a  spirit  of  anxious 
concern,  is  one  disappointed  by  the  char- 
acter of  the  question  she  straightway  puts? 
"Our  fathers  worshipped  in  this  mountain 
(pointing  as  she  spoke  to  lofty  Mount  Ger- 
izim  which  towered  high  above  them) — 
our  fathers  worshipped  there,  but  you  Jews 
say  Jerusalem  is  the  place  where  men  ought 
to  worship.  Now  tell  me,  which  is  the  right 
place?"  Does  this  seem  too  abstract  and 
impersonal  a  matter  for  an  awakened  sin- 

i6 


at  Xlbc  TRIleIUSl&e 


ner  to  trouble  herself  about?  Does  it  savor 
of  mere  curiosity,  or  of  captious  controversy 
as  between  the  rival  seats  of  worship  ?*  But 
remember  that  up  to  this  time,  both  among 
Jews  and  Samaritans,  the  approach  of  the 
soul  before  God  was  associated  with  some 
particular  locality,  with  some  temple,  with 
ritual,  with  a  priesthood  which  asserted  an 
exclusive  claim.  And  hence  to  come  before 
Him  one  must  first  be  assured  of  the  right 
locality  where  God  was  thought  to  dwell, 
and  the  right  altar  whence  the  smoke  of 
His  offerings  must  arise.  And  so,  after  all, 
it  was  the  woman's  yearning  which  led  to 
her  question.  She  would  know  where  God's 
true  altar  stood,  that  she  might  bring  hither 
her  offerings  and  her  desires,  and  hers  was 
in  reality  the  same  state  of  mind  as  Job's 
when  he  cried,  *'Oh,  that  I  knew  where  I 
might  find  Him!  that  I  might  come  even 
to  His  seat !" 

To  this  question,  how  else  could  Christ 
make  answer  than  as  He  did — He  who  had 
come  to  do  away  with  what  had  been  only 
local  and  national  and  temporary  in  religion, 

•  That  it  indicates  a  desire  to  divert  the  conversation 
from  the  close  and  practical  turn  it  had  taken,  I  do  not 
now  suppose. 

2  17 


Ht  Zbc  'WlelUStbe 


and  to  inaugurate  the  dispensation  of  the 
spiritual?  And  how  better  would  He  in- 
struct and  encourage  one,  just  beginning  to 
respond  to  these  movements  on  the  soul! 
"Woman/'  said  He,  impressively,  "believe 
me,  the  hour  comes  and  now  is  when, 
whether  a  Samaritan  or  a  Jew,  men  shall 
worship  the  Father  without  respect  to  place ; 
when  you  shall  be  restricted  neither  to  this 
mountain  nor  yet  to  Jerusalem."  This  truth 
was  only  that  moment  dawning.  It  was  not  a 
teaching  from  the  past,  but  "the  hour 
Cometh" — was  only  just  now  at  hand — when 
this  new  order  of  things  was  to  be  estab- 
lished to  the  wonder  and  amazement,  not 
alone  of  the  Samaritan  woman,  and  of  the 
Jews,  but  of  the  chosen  disciples  as  well — 
so  infixed  and  rooted  had  been  the  old  con- 
ception. All  localities  where  the  sincere 
worship  of  the  soul  would  express  itself 
would  have  equal  sanctity ;  and  distinctions, 
not  of  place  only  but  of  nations  and  persons, 
would  be  abolished.  Salvation  was  indeed 
"of  the  Jews,"  through  their  Scriptures  and 
prophets,  and  by  their  whole  training  as  a 
theocratic  nation ;  but  it  was  not  to  be  sub- 
ject to  Jewish  limitations  and  boundaries. 

i8 


Ht  Zbc  TRUelUSi^e 


And  not  only  was  God  now  to  be  more  gen- 
erally known,  but  better  known.  To  the 
poor  woman,  conscience-stricken  and  dimly 
seeking,  and  to  all  whose  hearts  sincerely 
cry  after  him,  this  teacher  at  the  well-side 
reveals  God  as  the  Father,  with  all  the  "suf- 
ficing" power  of  that  name,  the  tender  title 
coming  again  and  yet  again  in  these  words 
of  gracious  instruction.  It  is  not  so  much 
the  place  where  you  worship  as  the  Being 
to  whom  you  would  look,  Jesus  tells  her. 
God  is  spirit  and  is  to  be  spiritually  appre- 
hended. Your  approach  to  Him  is  to  be  de- 
termined, not  by  locality  or  clime,  nor  by 
any  exclusive  channels  of  ritual,  but  by  your 
own  spirit  in  its  attitude  of  faith  and  desire. 
So  that  here  at  this  well-side,  or  at  your 
home  in  the  village,  or  wherever  you  may 
be,  only  in  sincerity  of  heart,  in  ^'spirit  and 
in  truth,"  call  upon  God  and  you  will  find 
Him  near.  Yea,  not  only  may  God  be  found 
in  whatsoever  place  the  soul  sincerely  seeks 
Him,  but  more  than  that — ''such  worship- 
pers God  the  Father  seeks."  He  goes  out 
to  find  the  lost,  and  to  meet  those  whose 
groping  steps  and  whose  panting  hearts  are 
towards  Him. 

19 


Ht  ^be  WclUSlbe 


III. 


All  this  is  familiar  and  commonplace 
truth  now,  but  not  so  then.  It  was  some- 
thing not  only  novel,  but  startling  and  revo- 
lutionary to  the  woman's  mind.  The  great 
Mount  Gerizim  to  which  she  had  pointed, 
the  rival  of  the  Jews'  Mount  Zion,  she  had 
always  heard  was  the  most  sacred  spot  on 
earth.  Their  people  had  been  taught  in 
legends  and  myths  that  it  was  the  seat  of  the 
early  paradise,  that  Adam  had  been  formed 
out  of  its  dust,  that  its  summit  was  the  one 
spot  untouched  by  the  waters  of  the  flood, 
that  the  altar  on  which  Abraham  bound 
Isaac  had  been  built  there,  and  that  there 
was  to  be  seen  the  stone  on  which  Jacob 
pillowed  his  head  when  he  dreamed  and  saw 
the  ladder.  Thus  had  the  mountain  of 
Samaria  always  stood  in  her  mind  as  the 
one  place  of  worship.  And  now  can  she  at 
once  change  her  whole  point  of  view?  Can 
she  accept  off-hand  this  new  teaching  ?  She 
is  perplexed.  She  hesitates.  She  is  in  the 
right  frame  of  mind.  She  is  docile  and 
wants  the  truth  and  is  ready  to  receive  it,  if 

20 


at  Xrbc   TRIlelUSl^c 


only  assured  of  its  right  source.  The 
stranger  before  her  she  knows  is  wise.  She 
takes  teachings  from  his  Hps  in  all  docility, 
even  receiving  now  with  meekness  his  re- 
flection on  her  Samaritan  people  about  their 
"worshipping  they  know  not  what" — a 
declaration  which  at  the  earlier  part  of  the 
interview  she  would  have  quickly  resented, 
even  as  she  did  the  fancied  slight  upon 
Jacob's  well.  But  while  this  stranger  is 
wise,  he  is  not  yet  to  her  the  highest  au- 
thority. She  perceives  he  is  a  prophet,  but 
a  prophet  is  not  the  original  source  of  truth. 
And  she  has  heard  of  one,  sometime  to  ap- 
pear among  them,  greater  than  a  prophet. 
And  so,  musing  over  it,  without  disputing  or 
rejecting,  she  says  in  effect,  ''Well,  I  can't 
tell  what  to  think.  It  may  all  be  as  you  say. 
I  don't  know.  But  some  time,  I  know,  Mes- 
sias  is  to  come,  which  is  called  Christ. 
When  he  is  come  he  wilt  tell  us  all  things." 
Oh,  on  the  brink  of  what  stupendous  dis- 
covery is  this  poor  woman,  and  she  knows  it 
not !  So  Mary  was  standing  without  the 
sepulcher  weeping,  because  she  knew  not 
where  they  had  taken  her  Lord.  And  then 
He,  whom  her  soul  loved,  came  and  stood 

31 


Ht  Ube  TRIlelUSi^e 


beside  her  and  she  did  not  know  Him,  but 
took  Him  for  the  gardener,  until  His  own 
voice  said,  "Mary !"  And  Hkewise  the  dis- 
ciples, out  fishing  all  night,  and  rowing  in  to 
shore  in  the  early  dawn,  saw  a  man  on  the 
bank,  and  even  held  converse  with  him,  and 
"they  knew  not  that  it  was  Jesus,"  until 
John  in  his  quicker  instinct  of  love  whis- 
pered to  Peter,  "It  is  the  Lord !"  Yes,  said 
the  woman,  when  Messias  comes  he  will 
make  all  these  things  plain.  When  he 
comes !  She  had  not  long  to  wait.  Joseph 
in  Pharoah's  court  about  to  disclose  himself, 
caused  every  one  to  go  out  from  him,  and 
"there  stood  no  man  with  him  when  he  made 
himself  known  to  his  brethren,"  and  when 
he  overwhelmed  them  by  his  tender  an- 
nouncement, "I  am  Joseph!"  Likewise 
Jesus  had  sent  the  disciples  away,  and  there 
stood  no  one  by  when  His  gentle  voice  fell 
on  the  woman's  ear,  "I  that  speak  unto  thee 
am  He!"  I,  a  wayworn  traveller,  seeking 
rest  at  this  well  and  dependent  on  your  gen- 
erosity for  a  drink  of  water,  I  am  the  Mes- 
siah! 

And  then  what  happened  when  the  pure- 
faced    Jesus    stood    revealed    before    the 

22 


Ht   Zbc   WiclUBit>c 


woman  just  awakened  to  penitence,  and  her 
soul  going  out  after  God  ?  Did  she  shrink 
back  and  cry  out  as  Peter  once  did,  "depart 
from  me  O  Lord  for  I  am  a  sinful  woman"  ? 
Or  did  she  cast  herself  prostrate  before 
him  ?  Did  she  kiss  the  hem  of  his  garment 
and  bathe  His  feet  with  her  penitential 
tears?  There  is  no  record  given  us.  The 
Scriptures  make  no  scene  about  it.  But  we 
will  not  do  wrong  if  we  indulge  imagination 
here.  I  think  we  can  read  between  the  lines. 
Had  not  Jesus  told  the  woman,  at  the  out- 
set of  the  interview,  that  if  she  knew  who 
he  was  that  said,  "Give  me  to  drink,"  she 
would  ask  of  him,  and  that  he  would  give 
her  the  living  water?  Well,  the  poor 
woman  knows  now  who  the  mysterious 
stranger  is,  and  assuredly,  even  as  Jesus 
said  she  would  do,  she  asks ;  and,  assuredly, 
even  as  He  said  He  would  do.  He  gives  the 
living  water.  Of  course  there  was  further 
conversation  between  them,  for  are  we  not 
told  that  the  disciples,  when  they  returned, 
found  Him  talking  with  the  woman?  And 
what  words  of  comfort  and  instruction  He 
must  have  spoken!  What  an  unfolding  of 
that  grace  which  can  come  over  the  moun- 

23 


Ht  Zbc  WiclUSi^c 


tain  of  our  iniquities,  which  in  no  wise  casts 
out  any  seeking  soul,  and  which  can  make 
the  foulest  clean!  It  was  seed  falling  on 
prepared  soil,  and  like  showers  which  the 
earth  eagerly  drinks  in.  He  who  had  first 
cast  down  now  raises  up.  The  sacrifices  of 
God  are  a  broken  spirit ;  a  broken  and  a  con- 
trite heart  He  does  not  despise.  Yea,  with 
such  sacrifices  God  is  ever  well  pleased.  And 
for  the  woman  old  things  had  passed  away. 
Behold  all  things  were  become  new,  and 
even  as  it  is  told  afterwards  of  another  sin- 
ful woman  restored  by  the  Saviour's  grace, 
"Forgiven  much,  she  loves  much." 

With  the  return  of  the  disciples  the  woman 
takes  up  her  own  return  to  the  city.  She  had 
come  out  from  her  home  to  draw  water. 
But  she  found  that  at  the  well  which  she 
went  not  for;  and  so  absorbed  is  she  in  her 
new  thoughts,  and  so  stirred  by  her  new 
emotions,  that  she  forgets  the  errand  which 
had  brought  her  there,  and  leaves  her  water- 
pot  at  the  well,  in  her  eagerness  to  carry 
home  a  better  burden.  And  now  we  think 
of  her  hastening  with  speedy  feet  to  bring 
the  tidings,  even  as  afterwards  the  women 
who  received  the  angels'  word  at  the  door 


24 


Ht   Xrbe   TKHelUSi^e 


of  the  empty  sepulchre,  ''departed  quickly 
with  fear  and  great  joy,  and  did  run  to  bring 
his  disciples  word."  And  to  the  men  she 
saw  in  the  fields,  or  on  the  roadside,  as  she 
went  hurrying  by,  and  to  those  of  the  town 
whom  she  eagerly  accosted,  she  proclaimed 
the  wonderful  news,  "Come,  see  a  man" — 
and  hesitating  not  in  her  message  even 
though  it  was  based  on  the  fact  of  her  dis- 
covered sin,  "Come,  see  a  man  who  told  me 
all  things  that  ever  I  did.  Is  not  this  the 
Christ?"  And  it  is  as  if  we  heard  over 
again  Andrew's  testimony  to  his  brother 
Simon,  "We  have  found  the  Messiah !"  and 
likewise  Philip's  confident  word  to  Na- 
thaniel, "Come  and  see!"  The  woman's 
witnessing  in  her  town  proved  indeed 
an  evangel  of  power,  for  many  of  the 
people  there  believed  on  Him  because  of 
her  saying,  while  afterwards  many  more 
going  out  of  the  city  and  coming  to  Him, 
still  at  the  well,  believed  because  of  His  own 
words,  and  declared  in  their  joy  "that  this 
is  indeed  the  Christ,  the  Saviour  of  the 
world." 

In  the  meantime  the  disciples  note  that 
the  food  they  had  brought,  and  had  spread 

25 


Ht  Ube  XPQlelUSt^e 


before  Him,  remained  untouched;  and, 
knowing  His  weariness  from  the  morning's 
journey,  in  their  friendly  anxiety  they  press 
it  on  Him — ''Master,  eat !"  But  the  Master's 
thoughts  were  elsewhere.  As  before,  he  for- 
got his  thirst  for  the  water  which  the 
woman  might  have  furnished,  so  now  he  has 
no  hunger  for  the  food  which  the  disciples 
have  brought.  They  in  their  dullness  could 
not  enter  into  those  contemplations  and 
spiritual  sympathies  which  then  absorbed 
His  mind,  and  could  only  wonder,  "hath 
any  man  brought  Him  aught  to  eat  ?"  Their 
Master,  however,  is  abundantly  satisfied 
with  good  things,  only  His  satisfaction  is  of 
another  kind.  He  is  "seeing  of  the  travail  of 
his  soul  and  is  satisfied."  The  thought  of  a 
poor  lost  one  found  and  restored,  the 
thought  of  the  new-born  joy  among  the 
angels  in  heaven  over  the  one  sinner  that 
had  repented,  the  thought  of  the  spiritual 
fields  right  around  Him  "white  already  to 
the  harvest,"  and  of  the  many  Samaritans 
of  that  city  about  to  come  out  to  Him  and  to 
believe  on  Him — all  this  satisfaction  and  joy 
of  spirit  is  signified  by  His  quiet  answer  to 


26 


Ht   Ube   MelU51^c 


the  disciples,  "I  have  meat  to  eat  which  you 
know  not  of !" 

One  lone  woman  first  came  to  this  well- 
side,  where  sat  the  weary  stranger,  and  she 
received  at  his  hand  the  living  water.  Again 
the  well  is  visited  that  same  day,  and  many 
tread  the  path  where  but  one  had  walked 
before.  But  it  was  not  Jacob's  well,  nor  its 
purity  of  water,  that  drew  them  there.  It 
was  the  same  sentiment  surging  in  their 
hearts,  which  at  another  time  found  expres- 
sion in  the  mouths  of  the  Greeks  who  had 
come  up  to  the  feast  at  Jerusalem,  "We 
would  see  Jesus!''  And  they  believed  be- 
cause of  His  own  word,  and  with  joy  drew 
water  from  the  well  of  salvation. 


27 


Bt  TLbc  TOelUSt&e 


IV. 


To  what  wells  are  we  bringing  our  pitch- 
ers for  their  filling?  We  have  our  earthly 
occupations  and  interests  and  satisfactions. 
That  is  right,  but  should  that  be  all?  The 
daily  round  of  toils  and  pursuits,  and  it  may 
be  of  pleasures,  too,  this  will  never  satisfy 
the  soul.  Coming  over  and  over  to  fill  the 
pitcher  with  such  water,  no  sooner  drinking 
than  we  thirst  again,  the  supply  of  to-day 
exhausted  by  to-morrow — what  is  this  but 
to  realize  the  prophet's  wail,  "Spending 
your  money  for  that  which  is  not  bread  and 
your  labor  for  that  which  satisfieth  not?" 
But  hearken,  now,  to  the  proclamation  of 
another  well,  "Ho,  every  one  that  thirsteth, 
come  ye  to  the  waters."  "If  any  man  thirst, 
let  him  come  unto  me  and  drink." 

Jesus  sits  to-day  at  the  well  of  salvation, 
even  as  on  that  day  He  sat  by  the  well  of 
Samaria.  And  with  stretched-out  hand  He 
asks,  "Give  me  to  drink" — son,  daughter, 
give  me  thine  heart.  In  the  refusal  to 
respond  do  we  not  catch  His  charitable 
judgment,    "they    know     not     what    they 

28 


Ht  Zbc  TRaelUSiOe 


do"?  For,  surely,  even  as  the  Lord 
said  to  the  woman,  if  you  only  knew 
the  gift  of  God,  and  if  you  only  knew  who 
it  is  that  saith  to  you  give  me  to  drink — 
if  men  and  women  would  but  reflect  and 
consider  and  realize — oh,  surely  they  would 
turn  and  ask  of  Him,  and  He  would  give 
the  living  water. 

"  I  heard  the  voice  of  Jesus  say, 

Behold  I  freely  give 
The  living  water — thirsty  one 

Stoop  down  and  drink  and  live. 
I  came  to  Jesus  and  I  drank 

Of  that  life-giving  stream, 
My  thirst  was  quenched,  my  soul  revived 

And  now  I  live  in  Him." 


29 


DATE  DUE 

.JBM 

mmmmr 

~ 

Demco,  Inc.  38-293 

